History Plays for the Grammar Grades — Story, Setting & Ideas

From Woodchuck to Senate: Moral Argument as Drama

The play on Daniel Webster opens not with a famous speech but with a childhood dispute over a trapped woodchuck. Young Daniel argues for the animal’s life, while his brother Ezekiel insists on killing it for its skin. Their father stages a mock trial, and Daniel’s plea—that God gave the woodchuck “a right to life, to food, to liberty”—wins the day. This domestic scene mirrors the rhetorical structure of the later historical debates: a clear ethical dilemma, two opposing positions, and a verdict delivered by an authority figure. Lyng uses the woodchuck episode to foreshadow Webster’s career as a great orator, but the play itself remains a self-contained moral lesson. The dialogue is stilted and instructional, yet it reveals how Lyng adapts biography into a teachable moment about empathy and justice.

Treaty as Final Act: The California Republic Sequence

The John C. Fremont play ends with a treaty signing at the Rancho de Cahuenga. The scene is brisk: Fremont states the terms, General Flores acknowledges them, the Californians promise not to revolt, and Fremont pardons them. The entire exchange takes fewer than ten lines. This brevity is typical of Lyng’s approach—historical events are compressed into a single, decisive interaction. The earlier acts of the same play show the raising of the Bear Flag and the declaration of the California Republic, but the treaty scene is the climax. Lyng does not explore the political complexities or the aftermath; instead, she presents the treaty as a clean resolution. The play’s structure emphasizes order and closure, reflecting the pedagogical goal of presenting history as a series of clear, manageable episodes.

The Teacher as Playwright: Lyng’s Classroom Method

Lyng’s introduction explains that the plays were “worked out by the pupils in the fifth grade” with teacher help. This collaborative process shapes the text’s voice: the language is simple, the scenes are short, and the moral is always explicit. The plays avoid ambiguity; characters like Columbus, Washington, and Lincoln speak in earnest, declarative sentences. Lyng also encourages “much outside reading,” linking the plays to a broader curriculum. The book’s dedication to Cora Gallagher, principal of McKinley School, underscores its origin in a specific classroom. Readers should approach these plays not as polished drama but as historical artifacts of progressive-era education, where history was taught through performance and moral exemplars.

Lyng’s collection offers a window into early twentieth-century pedagogy, where history was dramatized to make it “a live wide awake game.” The plays are uneven—some scenes feel rushed, others overly didactic—but they consistently foreground moral choices and decisive action. For modern readers, the value lies less in the historical accuracy and more in the method: a teacher adapting textbook content into a participatory, character-driven format. The book is best read as a primary source on educational practice, not as a standalone work of drama.